


hellfire

by helsinkibaby



Category: Fame (TV)
Genre: Angst, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Het, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 23:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15982982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: At a New Year’s party, Leroy thinks about crossing some lines.





	hellfire

**Author's Note:**

> For the “animated movie music” challenge. Mine was “Hellfire” from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. 
> 
> Specifically inspired by these lines -   
> Why I see her dancing there  
> Why her smoldering eyes still scorch my soul
> 
> I feel her, I see her  
> The sun caught in her raven hair  
> Is blazing in me out of all control
> 
> Like fire  
> Hellfire  
> This fire in my skin  
> This burning desire  
> Is turning me to sin

It’s New Year’s Eve in New York and, contrary to what the news broadcasters and conventional wisdom would have you believe, not everyone is trying to get into Time Square to see the ball drop. In fact, for the students from the School of the Arts, it’s the last place they want to be. Not when Lou Mackie has closed the bowling alley to throw the students a New Year’s party that is far better than anything Dick Clark has to offer. There is music, there is dancing, there is ten pin bowling and, even more importantly when snow is starting to pile up outside and venturing outside without a hat, scarf and gloves is impossible, there is central heating. 

What’s not to love? 

In the corner, though, Leroy Johnson is feeling a mite less than cheerful. Oh, he’s hiding it well; he doubts anyone in the room has noticed. If they have, and if they ask him about it, he’s going to blame it on the fact that he’s not sure if he should be there at all, surrounded by students. After all, he teaches a lot of them, even if he is technically not a real teacher, is officially only Miss Grant’s T.A. It doesn’t matter that he’s only a couple of years older than most of them, went to school with a great deal of them; there are probably some lines he shouldn’t cross. 

He’s been thinking about crossing lines a lot lately. 

He thinks about it again as he looks across the room, sees a flash of dark hair streaming out as Nicole spins around, out on the middle of the dance floor with Jillian and Reggie. Her head is thrown back as she laughs, her smile bright and vibrant as the laugh that seems to cut through the music and reach his ears. She’s dressed to kill, little red dress and heels and she’d turned every guy’s head in the room the second she walked in. 

Not that any of them would do anything about it. 

Because, and Nicole’s ranted to him about this just recently, even though they’ve been broken up for months, the student body still sees her as Jesse Velasquez’s girlfriend, one half of a star-crossed couple who are simply taking a break on their inevitable way to the altar. It doesn’t seem to matter that Nicole is sticking to her guns, tells anyone who asks her that they made the right decision. All anyone sees is the hope in Jesse’s eyes when he looks at Nicole, to say nothing of the glares he sends in the direction of any guy who might try to actually ask her out. 

The School of the Arts guys might be teenagers but they’re honourable. They won’t cross that line. 

Nor will Leroy. 

But he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it. 

More and more lately, since she’s been tutoring him in science, helping him ace his community college exams. She’s been giving up her own time, staying late at his place and he knows he wouldn’t have got through the biology exam before Christmas without her. As if that wasn’t enough, she’d helped him out with Tina when she’d surprised him with a visit, his eight year old niece thinking that Nicole had hung the moon, begging Leroy to ask her along on their outings. Leroy loves his niece and seeing her and Nicole together, heads almost touching as they’d tried to decide what flavour of ice cream they should order, as if it wasn’t December and they weren’t freezing... well, that moment had brought something to the fore that he’d, up until then, done a really good job of keeping hidden. 

As he watches her dance tonight, that feeling - desire, pure and simple - reaches up from the pit of his stomach, burns him with an all consuming flame. 

And, as he watches, her head turns and her eyes meet his and she stops. Only for a second, barely perceptible to anyone else but Leroy sees it, and he knows. She’s seen him looking, has recognised the look that was his face. 

He should be embarrassed. He should be ashamed. But then she looks over at him again, bites her lip before she looks away. It’s enough for him to see the look in her eyes, the look that’s the twin of his and he realises with a shock that, whatever he’s feeling, he’s not the only one. 

But that doesn’t matter. 

Because there are lines that can’t be crossed and they both know it. 

His attention is diverted when Lou’s voice cuts over the music, warning them that it’s five minutes to midnight. Instantly, people start shuffling around, everyone choosing who they want to be next to when the new year rings in and Leroy knows that he can’t be here for that. Because the only person he wants to be standing next to, the only person he wants to kiss, is the one person he can’t. 

And because he’s the grown up, he does the sensible things, stands and grabs his coat and heads for the door, pretending he doesn’t feel her eyes on his back the whole way.


End file.
